Increasing the efficiency of all types of power systems is an ongoing challenge that is particularly valuable in the aircraft industry. As the efficiency of various systems increases, the size of corresponding components typically decreases, which results in system weight and power requirement reductions. One particularly large power requirement in an aircraft results from the landing gear being raised and lowered. Operating the landing gear creates a large load on the system, electric or hydraulic, which is required to power the gear actuators. With large aircraft, the problem is amplified since the landing gear assemblies of large aircraft are particularly large and heavy and may be numerous.
One solution to the problem is to provide a large power supply to the landing gear system while raising and lowering the gear. With this solution, the size of the applicable power system must accommodate the increased load demands present during take-off and climb-out, including the increased load associated with raising the landing gear. A disadvantage to doing so is that sizing the power system to support these loads makes the power system undesirably large and heavy or can result in requiring the addition of dedicated local power supplies. This increased weight must be carried by the aircraft during the entire flight, which increases the fuel consumption of the aircraft, even though this additional weight is only useful for the number of seconds required to raise the landing gear.
Another solution may be to reduce the power demands of other non-critical aircraft systems while the landing gear is being raised. For example, power may be routed from the environmental control system to the landing gear actuators. While routing power according to the current load demands saves weight when compared to a power system that is sized to accommodate all simultaneous loads, doing so can lead to a reduction in the life of various systems due to the low voltage operation resulting from the transfer of power between systems.
Thus, the different currently available solutions to providing power to the landing gear system for raising and lowering the landing gear while simultaneously powering other aircraft systems may be impractical and/or infeasible. Accordingly, there is a need for a method and apparatus for minimizing the challenges described above.